Solid oxide electrolysis cell with test apparatus

ABSTRACT

The present invention is to provide a solid oxide fuel cell test apparatus for a solid oxide electrolysis cell with a tubular evaporator furnished in the fuel delivery mechanism of the solid oxide fuel cell test apparatus being connected in serial to an external water supply, and the tubular evaporator having multilayer porous internal filler material may facilitate the inflow of water to be uniformly diffused and heated, providing a stable water vapor for introducing into the fuel cell with the fuel, mitigating adverse effects caused by pulse voltages to the fuel cell during high-temperature water electrolysis hydrogen test, so that more reliable test is achievable in order to obtain a solid oxide fuel cell with hydrogen generation from the water electrolysis.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a solid oxide electrolysis cell test apparatus, and especially to a high temperature electrolysis hydrogen generation test, mitigating adverse effects of pulse voltage to the solid oxide electrolysis cell, improving reliability of test result of the test apparatus.

2. Description of Related Art

The prior art Taiwan patent No. 1456230 disclosed an open flat-type solid oxide fuel cell detection device, using a carrier mechanism to accommodate the associated cell unit, gas delivery mechanism, and fuel delivery mechanism and the like structures. Such open flat-type solid oxide fuel cell detection device including open circuit voltage (OCV) measurement, polarization curves measurement, and endurance measurement of the detection device.

The disclosed prior art adopted alumina ceramic as main material to improve the high temperature reaction of metal material for reducing oxide flakes and increasing resistance of the fuel cell, however, it may produce such oxide flakes in a long-term testing or repeatedly operation, changing the original geometry and hindering metal ion volatile that leads to poisoning of the fuel cell that leads to not only affecting the test results and the fuel cell life, also accelerating the deterioration of the fuel cell. During the high-temperature electrolysis hydrogen generation test, the pulse voltage incurred by an external power source to the fuel cell that causes adverse effects on the test apparatus and instability in the overall test results.

In the prior art, a fuel delivery mechanism is provided in series with a gas evaporator to convert water to steam and introduce together with the fuel into the fuel cell. However, the conventional gas evaporator has not provided a mechanism to evenly diffuse the water, and often only heated peripheral wall that leads to uneven heating, and while the external supplied water continues to enter that causes evaporation incompletion and unexpected test results of the electrolysis hydrogen generation.

In view of the above drawbacks, the inventors are aiming to improve the disadvantages and the present invention is thus revealed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary object of the present invention is to provide a solid oxide electrolysis cell test apparatus with a tubular evaporator furnished in the fuel delivery mechanism of the solid oxide fuel cell test apparatus being connected in serial to an external water supply, and the tubular evaporator having multilayer porous internal filler material may facilitate the inflow of water to be uniformly diffused and heated, providing a stable water vapor for introducing into the fuel cell with the fuel, mitigating adverse effects caused by pulse voltages to the fuel cell during high-temperature water electrolysis hydrogen test, so that more reliable test is achievable in order to obtain a solid oxide fuel cell hydrogen generation from water electrolysis.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a solid oxide electrolysis cell test apparatus that fulfills the need of daily life and the commercial demand as well, during the electricity peak demand period, the fuel cell continues to provide the electricity needed, and during the electricity off-peak hours, the fuel cell produces the hydrogen fuel for its own need, thus the excessive energy is to be converted into hydrogen fuel as a reserve fuel for the fuel cell to achieve the desired goal of self-sufficiency.

To achieve the objects mentioned above, the technical features of the present invention is to provide a carrier mechanism, a gas supply mechanism, a fuel supply mechanism, and a tubular evaporator.

The carrier mechanism has two opposing shunt plates, an anode shunt plate and a cathode shunt plate. The cathode shunt plate toward one side of the anode shunt plate is provided with a cathode electricity collector grid, a cathode voltage line, and a cathode current lines, that pass through the cathode shunt plate in communication with the cathode electricity collector grid. The anode shunt plate toward one side of the cathode shunt plate is provided with an anode electricity collector grid, an anode voltage line, and an anode current lines that pass through the anode shunt plate in communication with the anode electricity collector grid.

A cell unit is provided between the cathode and the anode electricity collector grid, wherein the cathode of the unit cell is in contact with a cathode voltage line and a cathodic current line, and the anode of the cell unit is in contact with an anode voltage and anode current line.

The gas delivery mechanism is provided on one side of the carrier mechanism, which includes a cathode gas conduit connecting to the cathode shunt plate, a 3-way manifold connecting at the other end of the cathode gas conduit, and a cell unit cathode thermal couple connecting at the other end of the 3-way manifold.

The fuel delivery mechanism is provided on the other side of the carrier mechanism, which includes an anode gas conduit connecting to the anode shunt plate, a 3-way manifold connecting at the other end of the anode gas conduit, and a cell unit anode thermal couple connecting at the other end of the 3-way manifold.

The cell unit is connected with an external direct current power supply via the cathode current line and the anode current line, and the tubular evaporator communicates with one end of the fuel delivery mechanism at one end of the fuel manifold, and the other end of the tubular evaporator communicates to an external water source via a water feed line, when the carrier mechanism is placed in a high-temperature furnace, the heat generated by the high-temperature furnace is exploited for heating the water introduced from the outside source into the tubular evaporator, converting the water into steam, and feeding into the anode gas conduit via the fuel 3-way manifold together with the fuel.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tubular evaporator with multilayer porous filler material inside, and the water pipeline is in connection with the porous filler material.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a multilayer porous filler material of metal meshes.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a carrier mechanism accessible from external.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the structure of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the structure of the tubular evaporator of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the first embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the second embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In view of FIG. 1-3, the structure of the present invention includes: a carrying mechanism 1, a gas transmission mechanism 2, a fuel delivery mechanism 3, and a tubular portion of the evaporator 4.

The carrier mechanism 1 has two opposing shunt plates, an anode shunt plate 12, a cathode shunt plate 11. The cathode shunt plate 11 toward one side of the anode shunt plate 12 is provided with a cathode electricity collector grid 111, a cathode voltage line 112 and a cathode current line 113 passing through the cathode shunt plate 11, communicating with the cathode electricity collector grid 111. The anode shunt plate 12 toward one side of the cathode shunt plate 11 is provided with a anode electricity collector grid 121, an anode voltage line 122 and an anode current line 123 passing through the anode shunt plate 112, communicating with the anode electricity collector grid 121.

A cell unit B is provided between the cathode electricity collector grid 111 and the anode electricity collector grid 121, the cathode of the unit cell B is in contact with a cathode voltage line 112 and a cathodic current line 113, and the anode of the cell unit B is in contact with a anode voltage line 121 and anode current line 122.

The gas delivery mechanism 2 is provided on one side of the carrier mechanism 1, which includes a cathode gas conduit 21 connecting to the cathode shunt plate 11, a gas 3-way manifold 22connected at the other end of the cathode gas conduit 21, a cell unit B cathode thermal couple 23 connected at the other end of the 3-way manifold 22.

The fuel delivery mechanism 3 is provided on the other side of the carrier mechanism 1, which includes an anode gas conduit 31 connecting to the anode shunt plate 12, a fuel 3-way manifold 32connected at the other end of the anode gas conduit 31, a cell unit B anode thermal couple 33 connected at the other end of the fuel 3-way manifold 32.

The tubular evaporator 4 communicates with one end of the fuel delivery mechanism 3 at one end of the fuel 3-way manifold 32, the other end of the tubular evaporator 4 connects to a water feed line 42 via a 3-way manifold 43, the other end of the water feed line 42 is connected with a control valve 421 and linked to an external water source via an inlet 422, in which the other end of the 3-way manifold 43 is provided with a fuel inlet 431. In an exemplary embodiment, the tubular evaporator 4 interior has provided with a multilayer porous filler material 41 that is connected with the water feed line 42, and the water flowing into the tubular evaporator 4 from external source is controlled through the control valve 421 and is uniformly diffused with the multilayer porous filler material 41.

The structure of the solid oxide electrolysis cell and test apparatus of the present invention described above is applicable for detection of a fuel cell power generation. In the practical application, it is to place the carrier mechanism 1 in a receiving space A1 with preset temperature within a high temperature furnace A, dispose the tubular evaporator 4 on the side of the high temperature furnace A, connect a voltmeter 5 between the cathode voltage line 112 and the anode voltage line 122, and connect a galvanometer 6 between the cathode current line 113 and the anode current line 123.

Air is introduced via the air inlet 221 and gas 3-way manifold 22 into the cathode gas conduit 21, the heat generated by the high-temperature furnace A is exploited for heating the water in the tubular evaporator 4 so that the water is uniformly dispersed by the porous filler material 41 in the tubular evaporator 4 and be heated uniformly to produce stable water steam, and the water steam is introduced together with the fuel from the fuel inlet 431 into the anode gas conduit 31 through the fuel 3-way manifold 32, and the air containing the water steam and fuel can be uniformly dispersed through the cathode shunt plate 11 and the anode shunt plate 12 to the anode and cathode of the cell unit B for reaction.

The cathode thermocouple 23 and the anode thermocouple 33 are to accurately monitor the temperature of the cell unit B and adjust the temperature of the furnace A, and finally through the cathode current collector grid 111 and the anode current collector grid 121 that are in contact with the cathode and the anode of the cell unit B, respectively, current is drained out of the cell unit B, and the residual air, fuel and reaction byproduct are discharged directly through the cathode shunt plate 11 and the anode shunt plate 12.

Referring to FIG. 4, the structure of the present invention described above is applicable in practical application. An external DC power supply 7 is connected between the cathode current line 113 and the anode current line 123, and the rest of the structure is the same as that shown in FIG. 3. The use of DC power supply 7 is to provide DC power via the cathode current line 113 and the anode current line 123, respectively, for inverse power generation reaction in the cathode and anode of the cell unit B to generate hydrogen gas at the anode. Therefore, the cell unit B is able to provide hydrogen production on their own at electricity off-peak period, so that the excess energy is converted to hydrogen and reserved for fuel cell to use. At the same time, the water steam generated by the evaporator 4 can effectively reduce the adverse effects of the pulse voltage to cell unit B, and highly reliable the high-temperature electrolysis hydrogen generation is achieved.

As a summary, the solid oxide electrolysis cell and test apparatus of the present invention is to provide a steady supply of water steam in a high-temperature electrolysis hydrogen generation test, mitigate the adverse impact of voltage pulse to the cell unit, and improve the reliability of the test results of efficacy.

It is to be understood that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A solid oxide electrolysis cell test apparatus, comprising a carrier mechanism, a gas delivery mechanism, a fuel delivery mechanism and a tubular evaporator, wherein the carrier mechanism has two opposing shunt plates, an anode shunt plate, a cathode shunt plate, wherein the cathode shunt plate toward one side of the anode shunt plate is provided with a cathode electricity collector grid, a cathode voltage line and a cathode current line passing through the cathode shunt plate in communication with the cathode electricity collector grid, and the anode shunt plate toward one side of the cathode shunt plate is provided with a anode electricity collector grid, an anode voltage line, and an anode current line passing through the anode shunt plate in communication with the anode electricity collector grid, and a cell unit is provided between the cathode and the anode electricity collector grid, the cathode of the unit cell is in contact with a cathode voltage line and a cathodic current line, and the anode of the cell unit is in contact with a anode voltage and anode current line; the gas delivery mechanism is provided on one side of the carrier mechanism, which includes a cathode gas conduit connecting to the cathode shunt plate, a 3-way manifold connected at the other end of the cathode gas conduit, and a cell unit cathode thermal couple connected at the other end of the 3-way manifold; the fuel delivery mechanism is provided on the other side of the carrier mechanism, which includes a anode gas conduit connecting to the anode shunt plate, a 3-way manifold connected at the other end of the anode gas conduit, and a cell unit anode thermal couple connected at the other end of the 3-way manifold; characterized in that: the cell unit is connected with an external direct current power supply via the cathode current line and the anode current line, the tubular evaporator communicates with one end of the fuel delivery mechanism at one end of the fuel manifold, the other end of the tubular evaporator communicates to an external water source via a water feed line, and when the carrier mechanism is placed in a high-temperature furnace, the heat generated by the high-temperature furnace is exploited for heating the water introduced from the outside source into the tubular evaporator, converting the water into steam, and feeding into the anode gas conduit via the fuel 3-way manifold together with the fuel.
 2. The solid oxide electrolysis cell test apparatus of claim 1, wherein the tubular evaporator is provided with multilayer porous filler material inside, and the water pipeline is in connection with the porous filler material.
 3. The solid oxide electrolysis cell test apparatus of claim 1, wherein the multilayer porous filler material is a metal mesh.
 4. The solid oxide electrolysis cell test apparatus of claim 1, wherein the carrier mechanism is accessible from external. 